Center for Cultural Design: Yup’ik Tundra Navigation

5/20/2012 12:00:00 AM

Discover the ways Native Americans navigate their way around the Alaskan tundra. Using celestial navigation and landmarks, a Yup'ik hunter navigates across the tundra to find food. Read information about the cultural background of the Yup'ik, and play four games using celestial navigation to see if you can find your way in the Arctic. The instructions for the games are very clear. You will be finding the time of day, month of the year, position of the Big Dipper, known as Tunturyuk in Yup’ik, and the compass direction by using any two pieces of the information to find the rest of the information. A great introduction to using a very recognizable constellation to aid in navigation.